Over the years, I've published a lot of content in industry publications, including BenefitsPRO, as well as on social media. Many of my posts and articles have made a lot of other people uncomfortable; however this one will challenge my own comfort levels. 

It's been a very tough year for me.  I have faced physical and mental health struggles that have tested me in ways I didn't know I was capable of withstanding.  Exposing failures in the insurance and health care industry is easy for me, but doing the same about myself is not.

My goal in writing and sharing this with you is threefold:

1. To help someone out there who is almost certainly facing similar trials.
2. To raise awareness about how health care really can go awry, even for someone like me with a wealth of knowledge and a 30-year health care consulting career.
3. And to be able to thank the countless number of comrades who have reached out, checked in on me, and helped me get back to a point of stability.

I am not just some online figure who is magically immune to the very things I expose and uncover about this business of health care.  You may see a professional persona when I take a stage, or post a prickly opinion on a social platform, but so much more of the time, I am a husband, a father, a stepfather, and a human being.  And I have been fighting for my life.